Being a working mom is hard. And Good Morning Memphis anchor Dominique Dillon is reminding people of that fact.
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After recently falling asleep on air during a morning broadcast, Dillion is telling her story.
“The night before, my husband worked a double at BNSF Railway,” she said during an appearance on Today. “I have a 2-year-old. I have an 8-month-old. And I was trying to get them down to sleep at eight o’clock, but my 8-month-old, she wasn’t having it.”
Her baby is teething, and the mom “just couldn’t console her” despite her best efforts.
“I gave her some teething medicine, and nothing was working,” Dillon said. “Next thing you know it’s 10:30, 11 o’clock, before I can actually get her down to sleep. Then all I have is a couple of hours of rest before I have to be up in the morning and be at work.”
Dillon didn’t even realize that she had fallen asleep. She only snapped awake when “my meteorologist, Brittani Dubose, whispered my name from across the room.”
Allegedly, those in the control room didn’t intervene because they thought she was “looking down at my tablet.” She mused “Because who falls asleep in one minute, sitting up, in front of cameras?”
Naturally, Dillon was totally “mortified” when she woke up.
“I opened my eyes, and it was cutting to the next shot, and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I can’t believe this just happened to me,’” she said. Dillion even pinched herself under her desk to see if she was in “one of those work nightmares.”
But the good thing is that Dominique Dillon is getting nothing but support.
“The things moms do while their bodies are healing and the hormones are on a rollercoaster with zero sleep is the stuff of legends. LEGENDS,” chef Marcela Valladolid commented on Instagram.
“I am a weekend am anchor with two small children at home (an almost 3 year old and a 9 month old) and I can empathize with this so much. It has been the most challenging time of my life — attempting to give my career 100 percent while struggling to get my two kids down at night before I finally can get myself to bed at a decent time to be refreshed in the morning. Please go easy on her. It’s tough,” Heather Zimmerman, who works for Tampa Bay 28 commented.
Still, Dillon had a positive message for all her fellow working moms.
“Continue to show up to work, give your best, and then also come home and give your best to your children as well, because all they want is for their parents to show up and be there for them,” she said.